eMusic saves the day!
Jan 8, 04:35 PM · from the mouth of TylerSo was sitting at my desk thinking, “I need something new to listen to.” So I clicked on over to eMusic and within 30 seconds, I found it. The Duhks!
I’ve heard of The Duhks, and have heard a couple of their songs on the radio. Well, after listening to a few of the sample tracks from their album Your Daughters & Your Sons, I was sold. Great stuff. Highly recommended.
The Duhks play a delightful flavor of acoustic music. They’re Canadian, which with a few exceptions (ahem, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne…) counts for bonus points in the musical world. Technically they’re classified as bluegrass, but they’ve got a lot of other influences. Celtic music, especially. Their self-titled release was produced by Béla Fleck. The music is gorgeous. Beautiful female singer (men sing on a couple tracks), tasty harmonies, toe-tappin’ rhythms.
Get thee to eMusic!
Andy responds with:
Second on e-music. What an awesome site. It has a ton of music by everyone from Leroy Anderson to Frank Zappa (just about the ENTIRE Zappa catalogue, actually), in just about every imaginable genre. I’ve picked up a ton of excellent Jazz there, for instance. I’ve also been finding some excellent concert band and wind ensemble recordings there, so if you want to get your feet wet in that genre (a favorite of mine, obviously) e-music can give you a good start.
Other good recent acquisitions: Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Mahler symphonies; bizzaro songstress Joanna Newsome; huge compilations of John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald, respectively; everything of Jack White, including the White Stripes and the Raconteurs; Yo La Tengo; My Morning Jacket; so many others I can’t remember (I’m at work still). But it’s an excellent, VERY affordable option for finding new music!
On a related note, I’m listening to my Sigur Ros station on Pandora right now… =)
· Jan 9, 03:58 PM
Jim responds with:
Hmmm, ya know, this service just looks so cool, but it’s an extra charge that i just don’t need. Ya know what I want to see? Something like this or even iTunes (even though it’s a cousin) that lets you buy the music in FLAC or ALAC format. Some labels are apparently starting to sell albums in lossless formats, but I’d like to see a music “store” start with it. I just have trouble justifying giving people money for 30% of the data that was recorded. Hmmm… we’ll see if I crack or not. You guys have discovered so much cool stuff that it’s getting harder and harder to deny it everyday ;)
· Jan 10, 01:27 AM
Iak (down under) responds with:
Yeah Yimmy, that’s my biggest problem with it too. I still find that buying an actual CD is much better and provides the 100% of data mentioned. Occasionally I buy through iTunes if I’m in a rush. But I find that waiting 1-2 day(s) for Amazon to ship (for free) me a new CD is usually tolerable.
For example I just bought the CD mentioned by TyTy and it’ll be waiting for me when I get home from down here. :)
· Jan 11, 08:33 PM
TyTy responds with:
Even more reason for you guys to join… I get free music when you do! And everybody knows, IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!!! Apparently you get 50 free downloads for each person you refer (who joins). I just sent out an invitation to Jimmy and Iak, although Andy’s a member too, so if one of you is referred by Andy, and one by me, we’ll BOTH get free music. Wheee! Then, you guys should refer people too and get free music for yourself!! Wahoo!!
Or whatever. I don’t use AllOfMP3.com anymore, but one of the nice things about them is that you could choose what bitrate your music was encoded in. So since they charged per megabyte rather than per song, it’d be more expensive to get really high bitrate stuff. But it was still dirt cheap anyway.
And illegal. ‘Nuff said.
· Jan 12, 02:29 PM
Andy responds with:
bitrate shmitrate. I care much more about the quality of the music itself than the quantity of “data” used in presenting it.
my feeling is, this is music that I probably wouldn’t get otherwise. I wouldn’t even know to look for it. But I am interested in expanding my musical horizons, hearing things I haven’t heard before, and e-music gives me a cheap and convenient way to do that. I’ve been signed up for 18 months, meaning I’ve spent about $180 total on e-music. I’m sure if I’d bought all this stuff on CD it would have cost in the $800-1000 range, and I would have had to go out and look for it from all different sources. I really see no downside at all to e-music.
So sign up! And refer me so I get downloads. =)
· Jan 12, 04:29 PM
TyTy responds with:
More praise for The Duhks!
With the end of my eMusic month rolling around, I had to download before my membership refreshed. (One downside to eMusic… no “rollover” downloads. If you don’t use ‘em all up in the month, you lose them.)
Anyway, I downloaded a newer album by The Duhks, entitled The Duhks, and it’s even better!! Whereas the first was more traditionally Celtic, this one infuses more soul and world music. Very tasty indeed.
· Jan 16, 05:02 PM